Actually, I'm not trying to hire someone, I just want a little advice from my blog buddies. I hope you've got lots of ideas for me!
1) I once saw some clear plastic covers to put over the cushions of patio chairs, but I can't remember where it was. I am thinking of getting some, since I have an outside cat who loves to sleep in my chairs, and the cushions have gotten rather nasty! Or, do you have any other ideas for me? I really need something than can be washed off periodically.
2) I have a bunch of graduation gifts to buy this year. I have several FBLA members who will be graduating this year, and some of them I have had in class since 6th grade. So I want to do something special for them. However, because of the number of them, I can't spend a whole lot on each one. The girls are all really girly-girls, and the boys are just...boys, I guess! Any ideas would be welcomed!
3) For the first time, I am the Vacation Bible School director for our church. I need lots of help! Talking to the previous director is not an option, and I really don't think there are any records at the church of what was usually ordered, etc. Do you have any tips, neat things your church does, etc. that you can share?
Thanks in advance for all your help! I sure do need it!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
There's No Place Like Home
Don't get me wrong...I love to travel, but the best part is always coming home again. Or at least that's the case when you've been with 14 teenagers for four days! This past week I took 14 students to Orlando for FBLA state conference, and let me tell you, that is an EXHAUSTING trip! Not only am I up responsible for them 24 hours a day, staying up half the night checking on them, most of the time I'm doing all this in business clothes and high heels! However, part of the deal is that my family travels with me. Yes, the whole family--Tracy, Matthew, Luke, and Mama; I joke that I travel with an entourage! It makes the trip so much better to have them with me during the down time.
On Monday, our group spent the day at Disney World. This was Luke's first trip when he was actually big enough to enjoy it. The last time we went, he was only 5 months old and slept most of the day. It was terribly crowded, as this is prime spring break season, but we managed to see a few characters and ride a few rides.
Riding the train at Downtown Disney
The awards session is a dressy affair, and I just had to show y'all my new dress! Usually I don't dress up much for the awards, simply because I just don't want to spend a pile of money on a dress that I'll never wear again! But this year, I had the foresight to shop right after Christmas, when they put all the holiday cocktail dresses on sale. Scored this dress for $40, and you'll never guess where......Sears! Would you believe they had a huge selection of cute party dresses?
And it looks like I may be wearing this one again. I had two students who qualified for national competition, so we are going to do our best to get them to Nashville this summer!
On Monday, our group spent the day at Disney World. This was Luke's first trip when he was actually big enough to enjoy it. The last time we went, he was only 5 months old and slept most of the day. It was terribly crowded, as this is prime spring break season, but we managed to see a few characters and ride a few rides.
Luke checks out the park map, planning our day!
Eating at Planet Hollywood
Riding the train at Downtown Disney
We had a fantastic keynote speaker at the conference this year, Ben Glenn. You can learn more about him here. He let started his presentation with a chalk drawing, and let me tell you, the audience was mesmerized. Three thousand teenagers makes for a TOUGH audience, but they loved it! He also slipped in a couple of Christian references, and from looking at his website, I see that he also speaks for Christian events as well. He would be a fabulous speaker for a church or youth event!
The awards session is a dressy affair, and I just had to show y'all my new dress! Usually I don't dress up much for the awards, simply because I just don't want to spend a pile of money on a dress that I'll never wear again! But this year, I had the foresight to shop right after Christmas, when they put all the holiday cocktail dresses on sale. Scored this dress for $40, and you'll never guess where......Sears! Would you believe they had a huge selection of cute party dresses?
And it looks like I may be wearing this one again. I had two students who qualified for national competition, so we are going to do our best to get them to Nashville this summer!
Friday, April 2, 2010
The Reveal
Earlier in the week, I had posted a "before" picture of the horrendous space that I had been using as an "office". Disclaimer: It wasn't always this junky, just sometimes! Okay, a lot of the time. It did look a bit worse than usual, as I had been piling stuff on it, cleaning out, organizing, getting ready for this....
I am making part of my closet into an office. That probably sounds odd, but I have a huge closet (9 feet x 9 feet) and haven't really been utilizing all of the space. In fact, part of it was just being used as a place to stack stuff. So I decided why not do something useful with the space. I have been waiting about 9 months or so for my cabinet man to have a chance to build this desk for me. I wanted to have something that had a "built-in" look, instead of just buying a desk to put there. Also, this way I got the exact storage I wanted--a pull-out printer shelf, a file drawer, notches cut out to access my wall plugs, etc.
We didn't have a "real" office. We built our house before having children, and of course, didn't realize the need for a separate playroom/office area. So, we had our computer and files in an armoire in Luke's room. That worked okay...until Luke came along, and then we could no longer just go in there and work at anytime we wanted. Then we both got laptops, and it just kind of progressed that we really needed to move our "stuff" to a place that would be more accessible. We still have the armoire, but are going to work on getting everything out of it over the next few months and probably sell it. That will give Luke a lot more floor space in his room, which will be more important as he gets older and spends more time there.
I've still got lots to do, like taking the screws from the shelf out of the wall, patching the holes, painting over them, getting desk accessories, but I can work on that over the next several weeks...or months! At least it's in, and my goal now is to STAY ORGANIZED!
Even though it's just in my closet, I'd like this to be a nice "me" space. I know I need a new lamp; that's just one I had that I stuck there for the time being. If you have any decorating ideas, please feel free to comment!
I am making part of my closet into an office. That probably sounds odd, but I have a huge closet (9 feet x 9 feet) and haven't really been utilizing all of the space. In fact, part of it was just being used as a place to stack stuff. So I decided why not do something useful with the space. I have been waiting about 9 months or so for my cabinet man to have a chance to build this desk for me. I wanted to have something that had a "built-in" look, instead of just buying a desk to put there. Also, this way I got the exact storage I wanted--a pull-out printer shelf, a file drawer, notches cut out to access my wall plugs, etc.
We didn't have a "real" office. We built our house before having children, and of course, didn't realize the need for a separate playroom/office area. So, we had our computer and files in an armoire in Luke's room. That worked okay...until Luke came along, and then we could no longer just go in there and work at anytime we wanted. Then we both got laptops, and it just kind of progressed that we really needed to move our "stuff" to a place that would be more accessible. We still have the armoire, but are going to work on getting everything out of it over the next few months and probably sell it. That will give Luke a lot more floor space in his room, which will be more important as he gets older and spends more time there.
I've still got lots to do, like taking the screws from the shelf out of the wall, patching the holes, painting over them, getting desk accessories, but I can work on that over the next several weeks...or months! At least it's in, and my goal now is to STAY ORGANIZED!
Even though it's just in my closet, I'd like this to be a nice "me" space. I know I need a new lamp; that's just one I had that I stuck there for the time being. If you have any decorating ideas, please feel free to comment!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Scenes
All captured by my Mama, many while Matthew and I were at school. Some are several months old, some are as recent as last week.
Going for a ride
This chair was mine when I was a little girl.
A future musician?
This toboggan was mine when I was a little girl.
Yes, he's trying to climb in the swing backwards!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Whew!
That's the best thing I can think of to title this post after the week I've had.
This week we have been giving state assessment tests. Everyone in grades 3-10 takes the test (remember, I teach in a K-12 school), so that means everybody has to help with testing. Guess who was assigned to my room to help proctor the test.....the county superintendent of schools! No pressure, huh? Everybody at school was telling me how glad they were it was me and not them! I have known him my entire life, so it wasn't as big a deal to me. However, in the two days he spent with me, he did manage to look at everything in my classroom, read everything I have up on my walls, check out my storage room, and go through my attendance & lesson plan notebook. I hope I passed my test! Actually, I think it was that he was just bored! I know I was! We had two 80 minute sessions the first day, and two 90 minute sessions the second day. All you can do is sit and watch them take the test, and get up and walk around every now and then. No grading papers, reading a book, nothing. It was like watching paint dry!
I've spent the rest of the week wrestling with new computers. I was fortunate to have enough grant funds, along with getting a really good deal, to purchase 8 new computers for my lab. So, I decided that after testing each day, that's what I'd work on. I had a plan, but that plan didn't work out, so I am still trying to get software installed on these computers. It is very time-consuming and mentally exhausting trying to make sure I've remembered every setting that needs to be made on each computer. I was more than ready to walk out and leave it yesterday!
My plan for today is ORGANIZATION! We are moving our "office" so I want to get everything sorted and put in its new place today. Not exactly exciting, but I will definitely feel like I've accomplished something, and that makes me feel good! Income taxes are also on my list for today. I've been doing them myself, but with starting the business, we're going to have to get some professional assistance this year. I hope to have all that info gathered and ready to go this weekend too!
Enjoy this gorgeous weather and have a GREAT weekend everybody!
This week we have been giving state assessment tests. Everyone in grades 3-10 takes the test (remember, I teach in a K-12 school), so that means everybody has to help with testing. Guess who was assigned to my room to help proctor the test.....the county superintendent of schools! No pressure, huh? Everybody at school was telling me how glad they were it was me and not them! I have known him my entire life, so it wasn't as big a deal to me. However, in the two days he spent with me, he did manage to look at everything in my classroom, read everything I have up on my walls, check out my storage room, and go through my attendance & lesson plan notebook. I hope I passed my test! Actually, I think it was that he was just bored! I know I was! We had two 80 minute sessions the first day, and two 90 minute sessions the second day. All you can do is sit and watch them take the test, and get up and walk around every now and then. No grading papers, reading a book, nothing. It was like watching paint dry!
I've spent the rest of the week wrestling with new computers. I was fortunate to have enough grant funds, along with getting a really good deal, to purchase 8 new computers for my lab. So, I decided that after testing each day, that's what I'd work on. I had a plan, but that plan didn't work out, so I am still trying to get software installed on these computers. It is very time-consuming and mentally exhausting trying to make sure I've remembered every setting that needs to be made on each computer. I was more than ready to walk out and leave it yesterday!
My plan for today is ORGANIZATION! We are moving our "office" so I want to get everything sorted and put in its new place today. Not exactly exciting, but I will definitely feel like I've accomplished something, and that makes me feel good! Income taxes are also on my list for today. I've been doing them myself, but with starting the business, we're going to have to get some professional assistance this year. I hope to have all that info gathered and ready to go this weekend too!
Enjoy this gorgeous weather and have a GREAT weekend everybody!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Is it just me...????
In the span of two hours, I've had two things happen to me that just burn me up. I try not to make this blog my personal soapbox, but tonight, I've just got to vent!
First, a trip to M*D****d's (aka the golden arches). When we got to the window to pick up our food, the girl handed us our drinks, except for Luke's milk, along with one of our meals. She informed us that the chicken nuggets were cooking and we'd have to pull up and wait. Well, Tracy went ahead and asked for some mayo, sweet & sour sauce, and extra napkins. The girl begrudgingly went to get them, and we figured she'd bring the milk too. She returned to the window, handed us the items we'd asked for, but no milk. Tracy asked her about the milk, and she said something we couldn't understand and said, "I just need you to pull up!" Excuse me? So we did, and thought, "If they don't bring that milk out......", etc. Of course, everybody has a drink except Luke, and he wants his too, although we can't drink ours because she didn't give us any straws! Wouldn't the logical thing to do be to go ahead and give us ALL our drinks, and our straws, and whatever condiments we were going to need? When they finally brought the rest of our food, sure enough, no milk and no straws. So we asked the boy for our milk and straws. While he was gone inside, we discovered that they had shorted us an order of fries. So he had to go back to get fries. To top it all off, they only gave us two packages of sweet and sour sauce....and we had ordered THREE orders of chicken nuggets! Does this happen to anybody else? Is it just me?????
Second, I received a baby shower invitation today. On the back, there was registry info and a request to please include receipts because the store they're registered at will not accept returns without a receipt. Okay, I can live with that. It was the following statement that got to me:
Also, if you are unable to attend the shower, we can still enjoy your "presence" if you want to forward your gift to the address of the shower.
I think my jaw hit the floor at that point. Isn't that just tacky? (To clarify, the invitation was sent by the mother-to-be's mother.) Please tell me it's not just me who thinks so.....
First, a trip to M*D****d's (aka the golden arches). When we got to the window to pick up our food, the girl handed us our drinks, except for Luke's milk, along with one of our meals. She informed us that the chicken nuggets were cooking and we'd have to pull up and wait. Well, Tracy went ahead and asked for some mayo, sweet & sour sauce, and extra napkins. The girl begrudgingly went to get them, and we figured she'd bring the milk too. She returned to the window, handed us the items we'd asked for, but no milk. Tracy asked her about the milk, and she said something we couldn't understand and said, "I just need you to pull up!" Excuse me? So we did, and thought, "If they don't bring that milk out......", etc. Of course, everybody has a drink except Luke, and he wants his too, although we can't drink ours because she didn't give us any straws! Wouldn't the logical thing to do be to go ahead and give us ALL our drinks, and our straws, and whatever condiments we were going to need? When they finally brought the rest of our food, sure enough, no milk and no straws. So we asked the boy for our milk and straws. While he was gone inside, we discovered that they had shorted us an order of fries. So he had to go back to get fries. To top it all off, they only gave us two packages of sweet and sour sauce....and we had ordered THREE orders of chicken nuggets! Does this happen to anybody else? Is it just me?????
Second, I received a baby shower invitation today. On the back, there was registry info and a request to please include receipts because the store they're registered at will not accept returns without a receipt. Okay, I can live with that. It was the following statement that got to me:
Also, if you are unable to attend the shower, we can still enjoy your "presence" if you want to forward your gift to the address of the shower.
I think my jaw hit the floor at that point. Isn't that just tacky? (To clarify, the invitation was sent by the mother-to-be's mother.) Please tell me it's not just me who thinks so.....
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